Breaking: Government Cutting 24 Competition Bureau Jobs
Feds slash 5% of the enforcement agency's staff months after declaring a "hawkish" stance on the affordability crisis
The federal government, which in October declared it is going to be “hawkish” on competition, is cutting 24 positions at the Competition Bureau.
In an email on Jan. 20, obtained by Do Not Pass Go, Acting Commissioner of Competition Jeanne Pratt informed staff that 30 people at the Bureau are affected, with the overall workforce being reduced by 24 positions over the next three years. With a total staff of around 500, that’s a decrease of about 5 per cent.
Some of the 30 who received letters will be able to compete to keep their jobs. The reduction will also affect the Bureau’s operating budget for expert contracts and travel.
“While great care has been taken to minimize the impact on employees, we are in the unavoidable process of a workforce adjustment,” Pratt wrote. “With these measures, the Bureau will be fully compliant with the department’s [Comprehensive Expenditure Review] requirements.”
The government announced in July last year that it would be making wide-ranging cuts across many departments and reiterated the plan in its fall budget, with an overall goal of reducing spending by $60 billion over the next five years.
The Bureau’s reduction contrasts with comments by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Melanie Joly at the Competition Summit in October, where she stated that the federal government is going to be “hawkish” on competition.
Joly told attendees that the government was going to be aggressive in boosting competition across sectors in an effort to combat the ongoing affordability crisis. (Story continues below)
ISED, which oversees the Bureau, did not answer a query as to how the government plans to be “hawkish” with a smaller, less funded enforcement agency. “ISED has no further input to provide,” a spokesperson said.
One source familiar with the situation said that the “hawkishness” may be reflected in the fact that the Bureau isn’t being hit as hard as other departments. Thousands of government employees have received pink slips so far, with ISED itself eliminating more than 600 jobs, according to a report by the CBC.
Previous Competition Commissioner Matthew Boswell, whose term was set to end next month before he stepped down early in December, had pushed for an expansion of the Bureau’s staffing and budget to help it cope with and take advantage of recent changes to laws that have greatly expanded the organization’s powers and capabilities.
Among those changes are more effective tools with which to challenge mergers, and to instigate studies into concentrated markets.
The Bureau got a significant budget increase in 2021, with $96 million in additional funding over five years, but the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project echoed Boswell’s push for $25 million more in the run-up to last fall’s budget.
CAMP says the cuts are disheartening at a time when Canada needs to be investing more in its competition law enforcement agency.
“We made important reforms to Canada’s competition law in 2023 and 2024 that expanded the Bureau’s mandate, but we’re undercutting the goal of more competition and greater affordability by asking the agency to do more with less,” says executive director Keldon Bester.
“The Bureau’s work pits it against some of the largest companies on the planet, and that takes real human and financial resources to do effectively."
Great post.
It is something the media has not reported.
Policing of fair competition is really needed in a country with so few competitors.